


Imaginary Friend

by RoninReverie



Series: Jacen Syndulla Stories [1]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: After SWR Finale, Mentions Thrawn, Unknown Regions, the Ghost (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-04-26 04:22:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14394213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoninReverie/pseuds/RoninReverie
Summary: A young Jacen finds a mysterious stranger aboard his mother's ship.





	Imaginary Friend

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr: [Link!](http://roninreverie.tumblr.com/post/172124343469/imaginary-friend)

Jacen flew his toy ship down the hall and placed it in his jacket pocket before slowly crawling down the ladder, each foot finding it’s step securely before inching downwards. Lately, he found that he liked to maneuver through the crates Hera kept in the cargo bay, and would sneak away from his mother and Chopper to come down and play. 

Pulling out the toy ship, he began to make noises and soar it around the room, that is, until he saw a figure sitting meditation style behind one of the boxes and cocked his head to the side.

“Hi?” Jacen said curiously.

The figure looked up, blinked and gave off a meek chuckle before lifting a hand from his knee to wave back.

“Hey?” he said.

“What are you doing on my mommy’s ship?”

The figure stopped suddenly as he looked around, surprises somehow that he was on board a vessel. His eyes grew wide before looking back to Jacen and arching his brows. Truthfully, he had sensed a connection while meditating and just focused on it, but he never would have imagined it would lead him to someone. He couldn’t really see the ship, but he felt something familiar in the air and felt at home.

“I guess I came to talk with you?” The figure said with a smile. He had a sad look in his eyes, but a warm grin on his face. He had dark hair and tan skin, with blue eyes like Jacen’s, and two scars along his cheek. 

“With me?” Jacen seemed happy, but confused about that fact.

“My name’s Ezra,” he said with a soft laugh. “What’s yours?”

“I’m Jacen!” he said, smiling wide with a mouth filled with tiny, round baby teeth.

“Hi Jacen.”

“Hi,” the little boy said again.

Ezra could only stare at him. Dark green hair, big blue eyes, tanned skin, light though, revealing how young the child actually was. He hadn’t been out in the sun long enough to reveal playing outside, and the way his words slurred, he couldn’t be that old. Ezra decided to ask.

“How old are you, Jacen?”

“Four!” He held out his fingers, his hands blotched with small marks of green.

“Four…” Ezra repeated, running a hand through his long hair. He scratched at his chin where more hair had grown and thought seriously about something that Jacen couldn’t quite understand. The little boy simply watched until looking back towards the cockpit and then back to Ezra.

“Does Mommy know you’re back here?” Jacen asked, his hands fidgeting on his toy ship.

“Hey,” Ezra changed subject. “That’s a Y-Wing, isn’t it?”

“Yeah!” Jacen brightened up. “I’m gonna be a pilot just like my mommy!” He flew the ship around to make his point. “See?”

“Very impressive,” Ezra nodded.

“Jacen?” Hera’s voice called, growing louder as she made her way down the ladder and over to the crates. “Jacen?”

“Hera?” Ezra’s back straightened at the sound of her voice.

“Mommy!” Look at my new friend!” He pointed.

“Friend?” Hera approached with a worried glare aimed behind the crates, an arm on Jacen now as she coaxed him behind her leg.

There was nothing there.

“ _Uh…_ ” Hera looked confused, staring straight through him. Her voice was a singsong hum, revealing that she wasn’t about to reveal to Jacen that she didn’t see any person there. “ _Sure honey._  What are you and your  _“friend"_  talking about?”

“My ship!” He said, the toy held high in the air.

“Oh?” Hera took his hand and smiled. “And does your  _friend_ , have a name?”

Ezra only watched Jacen. He could hear Hera, but he couldn’t see her. It was a voice Ezra could recognize anywhere, one that warmed him to his core by the motherly love in her tone. He missed it, and it was only now that he realized how much.

“E’za!” Jacen said, his mouth unable to make out the word.

Hera laughed. “Well, tell  _“Eeza”_  that you’re going to have to play later. I don’t want you down here by yourself and it’s time for dinner.”

“Okay Mommy,” he said, his hand in a curved shape that must have meant that he was holding his mother’s. He waved with the other hand that held the Y-Wing and walked away, his small voice friendly as he called out to Ezra.

“Bye bye!” 

…

“Bye…” Ezra said, his voice more hollow. Suddenly, he was back, his connection broken just as suddenly as he had ceased his meditation. 

He looked down the hill at the camp as the others started making dinner over the freshly made fires. More bugs the size of Puffer Pigs, but it was protein, and Ezra’s stomach growled anyway.

_Four years._

With this planet’s strange rotation and multiple moons, Ezra could hardly believe it had been that long. He doubted anyone else had realized it either. There was too much to worry about just trying to stay alive on this uncharted world. The planet had many hostile predators, but the survivors were able to make due. With no other signs of intelligent life, they had spent all this time adapting, surviving, and making a schedule that they had apparently mastered in these four long years.  

There had been no sign of outside contact with the galaxy, and the Purgil had shown no signs of returning anytime soon. Ezra could scarcely imagine what had happened in their absence. He had so many questions about the war, the  _Ghost,_ Lothal…his friends. 

At least he wasn’t alone. Ezra often considered himself lucky. To think that he would ever consider being trapped on an uninhabited planet in the deepest part of unknown space with a broken ship and a couple dozen Imperials, “lucky”, but he did.

Ezra chuckled and looked up to a sky of constellations that nobody on the marooned planet recognized. At least he knew he could make such a connection. Even if he was still nowhere closer to finding Ahsoka, and the Imperials attempts at making long range communication devices was all but useless, Ezra had finally spoken to someone outside of the crash site.

He had to have been on the  _Ghost_ , Ezra thought. Perhaps some of Kanan’s holocron had led him to Jacen, or— _no,_  it was stronger than that. He had felt it, the connection in the Force  that led him across all of space to find this little boy. Jacen, who had called Hera “Mommy”…who had felt so similar in the Force to Kanan.

He would certainly try to speak with Jacen again. 

If the boy had a strong connection to the Force, or simply a strong connection to Ezra, he didn’t yet know. Also, Ezra wasn’t sure how useful it would be trying to get information about the outside world through the filter of a four year old, but he would have to tread carefully and see what he could manage to find out.

He stood up and sighed a pleasant breath, opposite his usual pensive sounds that alerted another meditation with nothing to show. Not this time. Today, Ezra had found a new sense of hope.

“Sabine…Ahsoka…” He said to himself. “I know you’re out there… and I haven’t lost hope. I’m always counting on you. Come find us soon.”

With that he made his way down the hill to help the others with dinner. Everyone had to pull their weight after all. 

With each step, he contemplated whether or not he should tell Thrawn and the others. Maybe he would wait and see how well this connection with Jacen really worked. He didn’t want to get their hopes up, not again. For now, Ezra’s hope was going to have to be enough for the whole camp. It was small, but hey, it was something?


End file.
